I swear to god, I’ll never get the collective brainrot the community has over taking random Warcraft 3 developer number 1390512 (he textured gibs_sheep_explosion_02.ogg)'s words as gospel without any further question.
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I’m a big fan of how all the aspects in that upcoming dragon book got existing concept art used for their bios except for Nozdormu who appears to be using a literal, badly cropped screenshot from the first Legacies short. Bonus points in how they screengrabbed the second appearance and had to cut the top of his ponytail instead of using the first one where it’s in full view.
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https://youtu.be/T5HwDRzOv-0
I’ve recorded that scene. The citizen’s line isn’t voiced, but Arthas’s is.
Jump directly to the interaction: https://youtu.be/T5HwDRzOv-0?t=219
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That’s the thing. Setting him up as flawed was already done in wc3 while the novel gives more context that a relatively fast paced video game campaign can’t offer.
Establishing Arthas as the beloved prince with aspirations of heroism and a holy warrior, but with the mind of a spoiled child; the king’s son is granted power beyond his means and an ego to match. Then establish him as feeling that he’s due all this and more from his aging father and people, that others are wrong for questioning him and that he desires power and control in his relationships with others (Jaina), wired to express even affection as possessiveness.
Now you have a character faced with an impossible situation as his homeland falls to a supernatural zombie plague fanned on by literal demons, putting his skills to the test to preserve all that he knows and hoped for. You have his heroic qualities clashing with his faults as his desperation grows and his worst qualities are amplified by design as Mal’ganis actively destroys his best parts to make him a tool and vessel for the Lich King.
He desires the power to change his powerlessness in the face of disaster, the loyalty of those in his command to carry out his will and control of a situation slipping between his fingers. In the end, little remains of him but his worst qualities, seeking to dominate, possess and claim the crown he believes he deserves for all his efforts and suffering. Fuelled by spite for those that dare defy him, he lives in mockery of what he was and could have been.
It’s a story that could be told well and WC3 didn’t quite, being very much a product of its time with the 90’s fad of dark heroes carrying their own story by presumption (see also Illidan, now so memetically crrrringe in Legion rather than the gloomy loner once thought of as so cool), the Marvelification of its time producing stories that could only be made richer by deeper characterisation.
The novel as such provides good padding to the bones of his tragedy; a story I always thought fell short by a lot.
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Blizzard, hire Levey now.
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If only they read this forum. Or EU forums in general.
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Is it just me or are these new Emerald Dream creature models too… cutesy-poo compared to what came before, in a way that clashes with the rest of the game’s visual style?
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I think they look great!
They probably just clash a bit with older stuff because they’re far more detailed; both when it comes to actual detail on the model, and in the colouring (there’s a lot more shades, blending between colours as they overlap, etc rather than the colours being ‘blocked in’)
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I think it looks awesome! Druid of the Flame flightform available aswel!
Now we just need a ;
Fire-bear
Fire-cheetah/stag/doe
Fire-sea lion
Fire Moonkin
Fire Treant
And we can go full ham on the Druids of the Flame being a part of the Night Elves!
(Fire-Druids customisations and Shamans when?)
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We actually see one of these in NPCs, just not usable in the customization options for owlkin they’ve let us seen! I reckon they’ll just make them available at a later date, though. Would be weird if they let you become a fire owl and a fire cat and not a fire moonkin.
My best guess is that they’re going to do some D&D Druid - Circle of Wildfire transformation of the Druids of the Flame as a faction, and their quest will unlock more forms related to Druids of the Flame.
Pretty sure fire moonkin is a player option, it’s just the only one that’s unlocked from the raid instead of being baseline available.
Arthas was good rip-off of Anakin yes.
It’s unlockable. Shows on the PTR if you hover over the colour and flame effect.
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They make me think of Ardenweald fauna.
This is not a positive.
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This clarification was kind of you, but probably unnecessary. 
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Vanilla tauren druid bear form will continue to be the single greatest druid model ever made.
It looks so savage and unhinged.
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The Phantom Menace released a year after Warcraft 3’s release, Attack of the Clones was released 4 years afterwards. Arthas is Archaon and Elric of Melnibone’s lovechild, the later of which having been ripped off by every edgy swordsman with magic that has white hair in fantasy these last 30 years.
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It’s hardly like Star Wars is original either. It’s a very heavily reskinned Dune at heart.
Phantom Menace came out in 1999, AotC was 2002.
Warcraft 3 was 2002, Frozen Throne a year later in 2003.
I do think that Arthas=Anakin probably overblown though.
true
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Smh all these heroes copying odysseus how unoriginal… 
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